


Astraphobia

by Arcane_Apparition



Series: 31 Days of Wayhaven 2020 [3]
Category: The Wayhaven Chronicles (Interactive Fiction)
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Thunderstorms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:54:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26852521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arcane_Apparition/pseuds/Arcane_Apparition
Summary: “I... couldn’t sleep.” That much is clearly true, considering the heavy bags settled under his eyes. But his tone makes it obvious he’s trying to avoid mentioning whatever has him so on edge. “I didn’t mean to wake you, I apologize.”Another crack of thunder. His attention snaps to the living room window. Fear replaces the exhaustion in his eyes.(Day for of the '31 Days of Wayhaven'. Prompt: Strength)
Relationships: Female Detective/Nathaniel "Nate" Sewell
Series: 31 Days of Wayhaven 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1957801
Comments: 3
Kudos: 22





	Astraphobia

**Author's Note:**

> I wanna make sure to credit the fact that I was absolutely inspired by a small fic Sera posted on her patreon about Nate struggling during a thunderstorm!

A crack of thunder startles Abby awake. The windows of her apartment rattle in their frame from the rumble. Wayhaven didn’t usually see major thunderstorms. If anything, it was a lot of rainstorms that just made the streets annoying to drive through. But at this time of year when they’re in limbo between seasons, where the temperature couldn’t decide if it wanted to be warm or cold, heavier storms were more a bit more likely. Cold fronts would get carried over the town on the tails of bad weather.

Tonight, apparently, the temperature decided to plunge.

She wasn’t the most settled sleeper on good nights. She tosses and turns, usually waking up to find herself tangled up in her sheets. Which means now she’s mostly uncovered and _shivering_.

Annoyed at being woken up and now annoyed with the cold, she rolls onto her side. Drags the blankets up tighter around herself to try and fend off the chill threatening to settle into her limbs. She sacrifices on hand from the warmth of the blankets to blindly grasp in the dark for Nate. She finds the other side of the bed empty, sheets long since gone cold. That makes her frown. 

The few times he’d stayed the night at her place he was sure to tell her goodbye before leaving -(after she’d assured him she’d much rather be woken up with a kiss goodbye then to wake up and find him gone). Concern chases off the last bits of exhaustion she’s feeling, immediately worrying there had been some sort of emergency at the Warehouse. She sits up and flicks her bedside lamp on. His clothes are still in a pile on the chair they’d been tossed onto.

“Nate?” She calls out. There’s no answer in return.

Concern quickly bleeds into worry.

She kicks the sheets off and gets up, the cold floor stinging her feet as she scrambles to find some clothes. Throwing on some sweatpants and stealing one of his shirts from the chair she wanders out of the room in search of her missing boyfriend.

None of the lights are on, and while that isn’t a surprise considering he wouldn’t need them, it doesn’t help settle her rising anxiety levels. She flicks them on as she goes. “Nate?” 

Rounding the corner to her living room, she finds him there as soon as she turns the light on. He’s standing at her small bookshelf on the other side of the room with his back to her, wearing just the spare pair of sleep pants she kept around for him despite the heavy chill in the room. The wave of relief that hits her at the sight of him though distracts her from the oddities of it. Her focus was solely on the fact he’s here and he’s okay.

“There you are. What’re you doing up?” She sighs as she asks, body still buzzing a bit from the lingering worry. He doesn’t respond, not even seeming to acknowledge she was in the room. She frowns as she shuffles the rest of the way across the room to stand beside him. “Nate…?”

He looks as though he’s miles away, gaze unfocused while he moves the books around on the shelves -arranging and alphabetizing them, she realizes after watching for a moment. He’s muttering to himself, quiet enough it’s a strain to catch anything he’s saying, and when she does, she realizes it’s a language she doesn’t recognize. She reaches out to gently rest a hand on his arm, hoping to get his attention. He’s alarmingly cold to the touch. He’d been out here for a while.

The contact seems to be enough to bring him back to her, snapping him out of the trance he’d been in. He blinks as if to clear his vision, a heavy frown on his face as he looks over at her. He looks lost. Exhausted. “Abby?”

“I’m here.” She assures, gentle and careful as she tugs him to turn and face her entirely. She takes both his hands between hers. One part hoping to help ground him, and the other part trying to warm his fingers up. “What happened?”

“I... couldn’t sleep.” That much is clearly true, considering the heavy bags settled under his eyes. But his tone makes it obvious he’s trying to avoid mentioning whatever has him so on edge. “I didn’t mean to wake you, I apologize.”

Another crack of thunder. His attention snaps to the living room window. Fear replaces the exhaustion in his eyes. 

The pieces of what’s going on quickly click into place.

“Nate, look at me.” She calls softly. She rests one hand on his chest and reaches up, cupping his cheek with the other. He leans into the touch, letting her guide his attention back to her. She meets his gaze with a smile. “You didn’t wake me up, so no apologies needed. But next time please just get me up, okay?”

“You don’t get enough sleep as it is.”

“And I’d sacrifice any amount of sleep for you. Besides, running on no sleep is a specialty of mine anyways remember?” She grins. The comment actually manages to draw a bit of a chuckle from him, some of the tension easing out of his shoulders. 

There’s another roll of thunder. This one quieter than the previous ones, but his attention still flicks towards the window, tension creeping up again. She steps forward, closing some of the distance between them. Edging into his space to get him to look at her again, but careful not to overwhelm him if he needs room. “Just stay with me, alright? Right here.” A soft request, but also a promise. A promise that he really is here. He’s not trapped in the dark memories the wind and thunder whipped up like rain-soaked leaves; he’s here, in her apartment. _Safe_. And she’s here with him, for him in whatever way she can be.

His eyes flutter closed. Turns his head and presses a kiss to the palm of her hand. “Thank you.” He whispers against her skin, voice so soft she nearly misses it. Her heart skips a few beats.

“Do you want to go to the kitchen and have some tea, or are you okay to lay back down?” 

“I’d like to lay down, I think.” She nods, dropping her hand from his cheek just to gently take a hold of one of his. She doesn’t let go as she leads him back to bed. Fingers intertwining with his as they walk. She switches lights back off, repeating the path back to her room. She only let’s go to move to her side of the bed to deal with the lamp. Once the room is dark, she crawls into bed again, laying on her back and reaching around in the dark where she’d left him standing. The bed dips as he joins her, and they get themselves comfortable again. He lays on his stomach, laying more on her then the bed. His head rests against her chest, tucked just under her chin while his hands tuck against her sides. Once he's settled she pulls the blankets up over the both of them. She runs her fingers through his hair with one hand while tracing up and down his back with the other. Follows the dips and grooves that are there, hoping to brush away the rest of the stress he’s carrying.

It’s a familiar position. The same position they lay in when nightmares wake _her_ up, crying and struggling to breathe. When it’s Nate holding her to his chest, helping her find her strength again by simply being there. 

But while he manages to chase her fears away with sweet words and promises, Abby falls flat. So she settles for simply talking. About nothing important and anything she can think of. Problems she’d dealt with at work, conversations she’d overheard at Haley’s, the latest jokes Farah had told her. Whatever quiet ramblings she can come up with to fill the silence of the room and try to help drown out the sounds of the storm.

The wind picks up at one point in the night. An eerie howl that even makes her uneasy as the rain whips against the glass of her window. She feels him tense under her touch. His breathing picks up and his grip on her sides tightens, balling the fabric of her shirt up in his fists.

She starts to hum then. A random tune she remembers off the top of her head. She’s not in any kind of key and it’s not the best sound in the world, but in the room with just the two of them it doesn’t matter at that moment. She keeps going until she feels him relax again. Until he’s shaking against her in soft laughter and she can’t help but laugh too. The wind dies down and they settle again.

It’s a while before the storm finally passes. Nate’s breathing evens out before then, fast asleep by the time it’s gone. She stays awake through its entirety, making a silent promise to herself to watch out for him. She only drifts off herself when it’s quiet outside, the sound of his breathing the only noise she can hear.


End file.
